Eager Elephant's Effective Everyday Excursion ...

Eager_Elephant

:mad:Well since I was last on it has been spend spend spend :eek:

DS went to Space School and throughly enjoyed himself, he has made loads of new friends but did come back with a slight attitude problem which I have nearly managed to sort.

The £300 cost was paid mainly by me - £250 and the rest by DH. I don't think the cheque has still been cashed though.

So last week DD had friends round on 2 days so that was cheap, 2 days were taken up with taking and collecting DS from Space School so that cost quite a bit in petrol.

This week we cycled to my mum's - 23 miles :eek:. We should never have done this as that night I could not walk or sleep or anything due to the pain in my thighs and ended up crying myself to sleep :eek:
So as we are all so unfit we are going to try and cycle a bit in the evenings so if we want to do it again we can without the pain (although everyone else was not too bad and certainly not as bad as me - DD cycled to my mum's and then I left her there and collected her in the truck a bit later on :rotfl:)

Yesterday we went to a Maize maze which was fun - it cost £12.50 and we also brought ice creams so about £20 spent there but it was fun.

Have some more clubcard vouchers to redeem so can do something at the end of the holidays - tomorrow we should be going to a Sea Life Centre which sme 50% off vouchers.

I am slightly stressed as I have no money left this month and still have some bills to pay :mad:

I have brought my road tax but only 6months worth when I wanted to do 12.

DH decided that he wanted a mini greenhouse as he has started on bonsai trees so of course muggins here paid for it - only £8.99 but I disn't really have it :mad:

Then last week we looked after my brother's dog, the first night we tried to lock him in the kitchen but he whined so we let him sleep on the floor in the bedroom but then he paced up and down the stairs all night and kept me awake so on the second night we agreed to shut him in the kitchen and ignore the whining as were the only ones who heard him - this was a big mistake as in the morning he had chewed the door fram off the wall damaging the frame and the wall :mad::mad::mad::mad:.
So the wood and some gloss cost £27 :eek:, DH fitted it all himself and cut the wood etc but then we realised the paint had dried up so had to go back for this and this cost £21,.99 :eek: although relative paid for this. We had to do it asap as we are in private rented and I am worried that people might have seen and reported it to the landlord.

Then to top it all the lady who we buy lambs from (who had said they would be ready end of September) rung to say the lambs were ready this weekend so DH agreed but had not thought where the cost would come from :eek:. So 15 lambs @ £50 each = £750 :eek:

We then decided to withdraw the money off a credit card via Paypal and then pay it back once the lambs have sold but that would take a week so I asked the lady if we could wait a week and she said writing a cheque was fine so we collected the lambs and gave her a cheque. So again muggins here paid £250 of the cost and the rest came out of the childcare account so now I can't pay the childminder for July :mad:

I have told DH that we need a business meeting as we are just paying out constantly and not really getting anything back.

I will feel calmer when I have brought my spreadsheet up to date :rotfl: although I have to try and find £165 for the minimum payment before tomorrow :eek:

Eager_Elephant

And......

DS's father had another child with his new girlfriend so they have recaluclated CSA and now he has to pay me £0 per week :eek::mad:

I need to check if the figures are right - if they are then something is wrong when people on benefits have to pay £5 per week so this is nearly £200 I am down again :mad:

And then it got me thinking that I am working all these hours and for the last two months I have not paid any extra to my debts so from next month I am going to transfer the extra at the beginning of the month and to hell with the consequences. If I have no money then I cannot spend it.

I think that DH might have a touch of OCD/Autism. This is not a joke I am being serious and I know that he can function ok but I need to learn how to deal with him.
After the dog chewed the door he needed to get it sorted straight away and once we had the bits he needed to fix it straight away even though it was tea time - if I tried to dealay going to the diy shop he almost paniced about it.
Same as with the green house, he got the idea and needed to get the item straight away and was pacing around until we went.

I am not sure if this is connected to his depression or not but this may be one reason why he ran up so much debt over the last few years - once he has an idea in his head he has to get it/do it and to hell with the consequences (admittedly the door had to be fixed but it could have waited a few days - the greenhouse however could have waited ages)

And now he has this idea of growing bonsai trees - he already had a few but once he got a book from the library it is a bit out of control - everywhere we go he is taking cuttings and growing them in his greenhouse and talking about making a business - oh if only he had this much enthusiasm for everything else he has started :rotfl:

EE

taxi73

those symptoms are more likely to be bi polar than ocd/autism...my son has bi polar and these are the exact symptoms.

Eager_Elephant

Oh hi Taxi,

Thanks for posting - think I will have a read up of bi-polar, as we know he has depression anyway so this is just another type of mental health illness.

EE

taxi73

reading your description of his actions is like reading about my son.His fixation at the moment is a motorbike..he is driving me nuts

Eager_Elephant

I have read some articles about bi-polar and I do have to say that it does sound like my husband, I read it out to him and he agreed.

I am not sure that he needs medication for it as he is not that bad with his episodes and also he already takes anti-depressants.

Thanks Taxi for mentioning it, I maybe need to be more aware of the ups and downs - I wonder if a diary is necessary to see how quickly the ups and doens happen.

EE

beanielou

A diary might be helpful.

taxi73

he does need to see his dr as my son went undiagnosed which turned into a 6 month spell in hospital as he was so poorly...the sooner he gets seen the better as he'll probably need mood stabilisers and would be best caught sooner rather than in a really bad high or really bad high...he's been a lot better on his medication.

Eager_Elephant

So hopefully the struggle for money will end this week as it is pay day :j

I managed to find the money for my minimum payment so that is fine but petrol for my car and a day out with the kids went on DH's credit card :eek: which hopefully I will be able to pay back this week.
Since we have been back at work we have literally done nothing which involves spending money except by groceries as this money is seperate from the start of the month.

Will need to sort my budget this week to make sure I am not skint all the time, obviously I will help DH with his but as he has no spare money he is already skint.

I think I need to set myself some targets for the next few months - I have been reading BenBen's diary and she is so organised and positive and loves a good challenge.

DD wants an xbox360 for her birthday :eek:, she is only 8 but they always get a large present for their birthday and not as much at Xmas so we have agreed so I thought that I would try and get the money for the Xbox from Amazon vouchers, I have updated all my survey sites (will post after this) and noticed that the majority pay out in Amazon vouchers so I need to make sure I do every survey that comes into my inbox.
The best one I have found is Maximiles who for 8400 points will give you £30 Amazon voucher :T, last week I was at 4687 and am now at 5152 just by watching videos and doing quick polls etc plus each time I use mysupermarket I get 80 points if my order is £80 or more which it is so this is helping the total a lot.
So my aim for Maximiles is to get 2 payouts before Xmas :eek:

Not much happening in the Elephant household except relative has gone away for a week :T to give us a break, the children are at my mum's so last night was so lovely and peaceful, tonight will be as well although my brother is coming round possibly - his girlfriend walked out on him last week with their two children (7 and 6mths :mad:) so I think he wants to chat

EE

Eager_Elephant

Last time I did this was March 2011, before that it was Sept 2010 and before that May 2010:

Yougov – [STRIKE]4585 710 1360 [/STRIKE][STRIKE]1935[/STRIKE] 2460
Pure Profile - [STRIKE]£18.20 £18.45 £24.65 [/STRIKE][STRIKE].50 [/STRIKE]£1.25
MySurvey (was Lightspeed) – [STRIKE]2475 905 30 [/STRIKE][STRIKE]780[/STRIKE] 385 – must have cashed out
Global Test – [STRIKE]76 301 681 [/STRIKE][STRIKE]971[/STRIKE] 341
Valued Opinions – [STRIKE]£5.75 £8.75 £1.00 [/STRIKE][STRIKE]6.25 [/STRIKE]£8.75
Opinion Bar - [STRIKE]£7.38 £7.60 £1.55 [/STRIKE][STRIKE]90p[/STRIKE] - £2.40
Harris Poll – [STRIKE]460 910 1600 [/STRIKE][STRIKE]100[/STRIKE] 620
One Poll - [STRIKE]£4.05 £5.20 £6.05 [/STRIKE][STRIKE]£7.20 [/STRIKE]£10.35
Ipoints(Maximiles) – [STRIKE]1280 1865 2578 [/STRIKE][STRIKE]3852[/STRIKE] 5152
Rewarded Opinions – [STRIKE]995 1675 0[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]350[/STRIKE] 450
MyVoice - [STRIKE]545 700 960 [/STRIKE][STRIKE]1185[/STRIKE] 1815
Hi-Epanel - [STRIKE]57 73 [/STRIKE][STRIKE]4[/STRIKE] 15
American Consumer [STRIKE]$4.00 [/STRIKE]$7.00
Crowdology £2.80
NewVistaLive - £6.50

Newvista is another one I have been doing for a while but forgot to add it to the last list.

As you can see I have nto really bothered with surveys for ages, I would rather come on here and catch up with diaries but I know that does not get me any money :rotfl: so I will try harder and now I have a target I have to reach it!!!

EE